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Consider the importance of salt in in the Bible. Israel was commanded to offer salt with all of their offerings.3.143 Jesus taught us we are the salt of the earth, and warned that if the salt has lost its savour then it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men.3.144 Paul even uses salt as an example of how we should speak, saying "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."3.145 James similarly taught: "Out of he same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethern, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethern, bear olive berries? Either a vine figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh."3.146
Despite mentioning the importance of salt, the Bible does not describe salt diapirs. In fact, the Bible does not provide details on any geological processes. These were outside of the human knowledge base until William Smith and the birth of modern geology, as represented by his first map of English Geology, which was published in 1801.3.147
It seems a paradox that religions do not have a mechanism to integrate scientific discoveries into their theologies, and this seems to be one of the reasons the science vs. religion debate exists.24
The following list summaries geological processes (in addition to the salt diapirs selected as a theme for this section) which have not been addressed by any of the major religions, and which could be explored in a detailed discussion of geological things to be acted upon, particularly from a scientific perspective:
- The way the moon's gravity - and to a much lesser degree how the gravity of passing comets or asteroids - changes plate tectonics and volcanism.
- How meteorites or asteroids hitting earth change topography, climate, geological depositional processes, and the very conditions for life. This process has been described by numerous articles in the popular press over the past couple of decades regarding demise of the dinosaurs.
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paradoxes